Frederick Handel Booth

Who was Frederick Handel Booth?

Frederick Handel Booth was a British politician, who served as a Liberal Member of Parliament for Pontefract from 1910 to 1918.

He was born near Manchester in 1867, and attended the high school in Bolton le Moor.

In the 1900 general election he unsuccessfully contested the constituency of King's Lynn, and in the December 1910 general election was elected as the MP for Pontefract. At the 1918 general election, he contested Wentworth, but was defeated.

Whilst in Parliament, he led the government inquiry into the Marconi scandal of 1912.

In 1917, he was convicted of fraud in the high-profile case of Gruban v Booth, where it was found that he had defrauded a German-born businessman of his company, and then arranged to have him interned.